Bringing your Dogs to Work Can Make you Feel Better All Day Long

Posted on Oct 22nd 2015

A new study done by the Virginia Commonwealth University shows that dog owners who brought their pets to work had lower stress at the beginning and throughout the day compared to workers who didn't bring their dogs to work or don't have pets at all. The stress level of the study participants who didn't bring their dogs to work increased steadily and nearly doubled by the end of their work day.

Dr. Randolph Barker, a tenured Professor of Management at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business said that fifty percent of those people that brought their dogs to work felt that their dogs increased their productivity. That gets businesses attention when you say that, right? This can certainly be used as an argument to convince your boss to think about allowing at least one dog in the office!

However, not everyone is a dog lover, so having your best friend at the office can cause some issues. In the study, Dr. Baker said that people did find the dogs were destructive at times seeing as they can be noisy and were not keeping the work space as clean as some would like. But these problems can be resolved, perhaps with the use of some dog accessories or dog beds to keep them occupied! Plus, there's no ignoring the positive effects they have on stress and productivity in the workplace!